Heims, bart hvössum saumi,
hjálpsterkr, friðarmerki,
lýðr at lausn of næði,
limu Krists við þik nista.
Mátt af dreyra dróttins
dags reitar því heita
blíðs ok bitrum dauða
blómi helgra dóma.
Hjálpsterkr, friðarmerki heims, bart limu Krists nista við þik hvössum saumi at lýðr of næði lausn. Því mátt heita blómi helgra dóma af dreyra ok bitrum dauða blíðs dróttins dags reitar.
Help-strong one, peace-sign of the world [CROSS], you bore the limbs of Christ pinned to you with sharp nail-stitching, so that mankind might obtain liberation. Therefore you can be called the blossom of relics on account of the blood and bitter death of the tender lord of day’s furrow [SKY/HEAVEN > = God (= Christ)].
[6] dags reitar ‘of day’s furrow [SKY/HEAVEN]’: A somewhat unusual heaven-kenning; cf. dags land ‘day’s land’ Leið 24/8. Reitr (from ríta ‘to scratch, engrave, write’) ‘furrow’, by extension ‘cultivated land’, ‘a marked out space’. Alternatively the kenning can be read as ‘the space inscribed/marked out by the day’, or simply as ‘day’s land’. This is the first use of reitr as a base-word in a heaven-kenning (cf. Lil 11/4, 26/2). As ‘furrow’ or ‘cultivated land’ the noun accords well, however, with the agrarian imagery of the blómi ‘blossom’ (l. 8) watered (rained upon) by the dreyri ‘blood’ of Christ (cf. the use of such imagery as metaphor for inspiration in sts 4-5 and the recurrence of ár in the sense of ‘year’s abundance’; see Note to 5/5).
case: gen.